California’s Top Pesticide Blunders

In Butte County, Calif., a man used a salt shaker to apply insecticidal dust on his dog for flea control. Later, he thought the salt shaker contained garlic salt and sprinkled the insecticidal dust on a bowl of chili.

The man realized his mistake because the chili tasted strange and the beans were a gray color. He experienced some stomach discomfort and went to a hospital for treatment.

This incident is one of the California Department of Pesticide Regulation’s (DPR) “Top Pesticide Blunders,” which reminds the public to avoid illness and injury by following label instructions and using household cleaning and gardening products that pose the least risk to their health and the environment.

What follows are two Butte County incidents and blunders that were drawn from 2007 illnesses and injuries reported to DPR. State privacy law protects the individuals’ identities.
• In Sacramento County, a teenage girl saw a mouse in her home and used gopher bait to control the problem because she had seen her parents use it effectively against gophers in the yard. She read the label, but did not understand it. She poured a handful of pellets into a corner of two bedrooms and waited in another room. Within two hours, she experienced a sharp pain behind her eyes, and tightness in her chest when she breathed in. She was taken to an emergency room for evaluation.
• In Los Angeles County, an elderly woman spilled insecticidal powder on herself as she tried to open the container to use for roach control in her house. She apparently held the container over her head. She experienced “burning” and was taken to her doctor.

Thanks for reading,

Jeff The ANT-SER Man

Do-It-Yourself Bed Bug Detector

From December 18, 2009 Science News, by Susan Milius

After trying some 50 arrangements of household objects, researchers have come up with a new, homemade bed bug detector.

Wan-Tien Tsai of Rutgers University worked with Changlu Wang, also at Rutgers, for six months on designing homemade devices that lured bed bugs out into a trap so residents can tell whether a home is infested.  Like many insects that search for blood, bed bugs are attracted to plumes of concentrated carbon dioxide, good clues that an animal filled with liquid dinner is breathing somewhere nearby.  In lab tests, carbon dioxide beat heat and several chemical attractants in drawing the bugs out of hiding.

Visit us at: http://www.ant-ser.com/home.php  for several bed bug products.

I service some HUD housing and if you live in public housing of any type DO NOT put up with insects. Visit our store (click here) for do-it-yourself pest products @ http://www.ant-ser.com/home.php.

Recession Tempts Landlords to Reduce Pest Control Inspections

While homeowners are reporting that their greatest pest concern these days are bed bugs, throughout the New York-area, a combination of wintertime and the recession is raising the risk of cockroach and rodent infestations for apartment dwellers.

“Inspections both deter and spot new infestations, enabling pest management professionals to take steps to eliminate them,” says Leonard Douglen, the executive director of the New Jersey Pest Management Association. “Without such inspections any structure, homes, offices, and others can quickly become overrun with roach and rodent populations. It’s a no-win situation.”

Douglen noted that public health laws mandating pest control are invaluable. Despite the increased threat of rodent infestations as mice and rats move indoors wherever they can find harborage against the cold, public facilities such as restaurants remain protected by the work of pest management professionals.

The rapidity with which pest populations can proliferate “tends to take people by surprise,” says Douglen. “If you see cockroaches in your kitchen, for every two you see, there can be several hundred you do not.” The young of German cockroaches mature in 36 days while American cockroaches take up to 160 days.

Rats are ready to breed within three month’s time of their birth and their gestation period is 22 days. They have an average litter of eight. Mice, too, reproduce rapidly.

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With best regards,

Jeff Ahrens, The ANT-SER Man.

I stop and inspect my ankles and identify the culprit as fleas, flea products. Since I now know why I continue on to the office. My choice of treatment for fleas is CB-80. I treat the truck carpets and my pantlegs.

The how of this is I inspected a house which had pets prior to my visit, the house is now empty. Remeber fleas can lay dormant for quite a period of time and when they smell CO2 they hatch and attack.

Please remember fleas can attack even in December.

Please visit our online store, ANT-SER.com, for all your home pest control needs.

 The adult house fly is 6 to 7 mm long, with the female usually larger than the male. The abdomen is gray or yellowish with dark midline and irregular dark markings on the sides. The underside of the male is yellowish.

Maggots are the early instar larvae. They are typically creamy whitish in color, cylindrical but tapering toward the head. The head contains one pair of dark hooks. The legless maggot emerges from the egg in warm weather within eight to 20 hours, and immediately feeds on and develops in the material in which the egg was laid.

Killing adult flies may reduce the infestation, but elimination of breeding areas is necessary for good management. Garbage cans and dumpsters should have tight-fitting lids and be cleaned regularly. Dry garbage and trash should be placed in plastic garbage bags and sealed up. All garbage receptacles should be located as far from building entrances as possible.

Please visit our Do-It-Yourself-Store for all the products you will need for these and other insect problems. A good residual to use is Talstar or Max Force bait.

Thank you for reading and I hope it helps.

Jeff (The Ant-Ser Man)

Remember spiders need live insects to feed on to live. They catch the spiders by using webs. They inject their prey with venom through fangs.

When you are moving things indoor look to make sure they are not harboring any spiders or insect prey that will feed the spiders.

Typically spiders will not go on offense to attack a person. They will bite when pressed between shoes, clothes or hats and your skin.

Some great products to use are: CB80-Extra, Demon WP,or Delta Dust . Click on them to purchase and/or view the product items.

Where are they?

Weems and Whitcomb (1975) noted that, “on many occasions specimens have been inadvertently brought into Florida in trucks and automobiles, hidden in luggage, boxes, and various commercial cargoes, but to date it appears to have been unsuccessful in establishing breeding populations in Florida.”

Gertsch and Ennik (1983) reported a few records from Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Maine, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Wyoming and Tamaulipas (Mexico).

What do they look like?

The description is taken from Gertsch (1958). Adults of both sexes are similar in appearance and size, ranging from about 7 to 12 mm in body length. Adult females average slightly larger, about 9 mm compared to about 8 mm for adult males. In total, these markings appear in the form of a violin. In addition, three dusky patches may occur along the margin on each side. The sternum is yellowish, with other ventral body parts of the cephalothorax darker reddish brown.

Where do they hang out?

Most are found in buildings and outbuildings, especially in boxes and among papers, in every room from basement to attic. They were found in almost any place which had remained undisturbed for lengthy periods of time, such as behind pictures, beneath or behind furniture, in boxes of toys, in clothing, among stored papers, in the corrugations of cardboard boxes, and in discarded articles, such as tires, inner tubes, and assorted other junk. Most of the specimens found in feral conditions were under rocks, especially in bluff outcrops, with a few under bark or in logs. They definitely seemed to prefer dry conditions.

female with egg sac

Bites and Bite Symptoms

Brown recluse spiders usually bite only when they become trapped next to the victim’s skin. Bites occur either when sleeping humans roll onto the spider or put on clothes into which the spider has crawled (Vetter and Visscher 1998). Typically bites occur under clothing, mostly on the thigh, upper arm, or lateral torso, less often on the neck (Anderson 1998).

Description of the symptoms is from Wingo (1960), Gorham (1968, 1970), Anderson (1982, 1998), and Vetter and Visscher (1998). Reactions to a bite vary from no noteworthy symptoms to severe necrosis or systemic effects. Discomfort may be felt immediately after the bite, or several hours may pass before any local reaction to the bite occurs. In one study, only 57% of the patients realized they had been bitten at the time of the bite.

Typical symptoms are as follows: Symptoms start two to six hours after the bite. Blisters frequently appear at the bite site, accompanied by severe pain and pronounced swelling. By 12 to 24 hours, it is usually apparent if a Loxosceles wound is going to become necrotic because it turns purple in color; if necrotic symptoms do not express by 48 to 96 hours, then they will not develop. If the skin turns purple, it will then turn black as cells die. Eventually the necrotic core falls away, leaving a deep pit that gradually fills with scar tissue.

Author: G.B. Edwards, Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Division of Plant Industry.
Originally published as DPI Entomology Circular 406.
Photographs: Jeffrey Lotz and G.B. Edwards, Division of Plant Industry; Jim Kalisch, University of Nebraska – Lincoln; and James L. Castner, University of Florida
Project Coordinator: Thomas R. Fasulo, University of Florida
Publication Number: EENY-299
Publication Date: August 2003. Latest revision: June 2009.
Copyright 2003-2009 University of Florida

•  There are about 1000 species of spiders in the United States. They live everywhere, even inside homes and buildings. The brown recluse and the widow spiders are considered venomous spiders; however, most spiders are not harmful to man.
• Spiders feed entirely on living insects or other animals, they may actively search for their prey, hide and wait for them to pass, or build webs to trap flying insects.

Control:

Non-Chemical Control of Spiders

 Outside lights should not be left on at night.  Trash, lumber piles, bricks, weeds, and outside structures are good breeding places for spiders and should be cleaned up. Inside the home spider webs should be brushed down. The egg sacs should be destroyed, vacuum cleaner attachments may be used to clean walls, and the collected debris should be destroyed.

Chemical Control of Spiders

Chemical control of spiders is difficult outdoors because web spinning spiders do not tend to contact treated surfaces. Inside the house, space sprays containing pyrethrins or pyrethroids are effective in killing spiders. Space sprays have little residual activity and should be applied when spiders are noticed. Dust formulations can be used in crawl spaces, attics, and utility areas to provide long-term protection. The insecticidal dusts tend to cling to the spider webs for long periods of time. When spiders chew their webs to recycle the silk they consume the toxicant and die.

I hope this helps anyone who reads this.